Air Canada's Privacy Protection Policy

We understand the importance of protecting the personal information of our customers and our employees. To earn and maintain your trust we have designed our policy to meet or exceed the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) and the ten principles set forth in the Canadian National Standard for the Protection of Personal Information. In addition, we are constantly looking for new and better ways to secure your personal information and to ensure that it is used in a responsible and respectful manner.

This privacy policy applies to www.aircanada.com owned and operated by Air Canada. This privacy policy describes how Air Canada collects and uses the personal information you provide to Air Canada. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.

If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, you should first contact Air Canada's Privacy Office as follows:

Accountability

Air Canada has a Privacy Office that is responsible for ensuring compliance with the requirements of PIPEDA. Should you have any questions regarding this policy or concerns with respect to Air Canada's compliance with the requirements of PIPEDA, you may contact the Air Canada Privacy Office at the above address.

Identifying Purpose of Collection

When you purchase an Air Canada product, including airline tickets, or make a flight booking for yourself or someone else by contacting Air Canada Reservations, by going to an IATA accredited travel agency, or by booking directly online you will be required to provide certain personal information to complete your transaction. This may include name, address, telephone number, payment card number and expiry date. The information is required to identify you, in order to contact you, if necessary and to complete the process of your purchase. We also request your gender to assist in estimating the aircraft's total load and as an additional identifier.

If you request a customized service we may also need to collect additional personal information as described below.

Special Meals

On some of Air Canada's flights special meals to accommodate a range of dietary requirements are available. Availability must be determined at the time you book your flight. If you are able to make such a request the information must be recorded in your travel booking. This information is then transferred to the applicable catering service as well as the flight crew. In certain airports the ground handling is outsourced to another airline. In that case, we would need to transfer your information to the handling airline. If your travel includes a transfer from Air Canada to another airline your special meal request will be transferred where the service is available.

Concierge Services

Air Canada VIP and Altitude Super Elite 100K members qualify for personalized concierge service in more than 40 airports around the world, and enjoy a 24-hour hotline available seven days a week to connect instantly with our Air Canada Concierge Desk. Any information shared with a concierge agent may be collected, stored, and used to ensure a more personalized service. This information is encrypted and kept electronically, and is accessible only to the concierge agents, who may share it with other Air Canada staff as necessary to serve you. However, no information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or sex life or sexual orientation is collected, stored or used to provide the concierge service, except to the extent that meal preferences may suggest some such characteristics.

Special Offers or Discounts

Air Canada offers special discounts to infants and children. To assess your fare eligibility and ensure that your ticket is correctly processed we need to record the passenger's date of birth at the time of booking. At the airport, for verification, you are required to present personal identification with the date of birth of the passenger. If your travel includes a transfer from Air Canada to another airline your date of birth will also be transferred to that airline in order that you benefit from the discount.

Special Assistance

We offer a range of travel services to customers with special needs. We also do our best to make your travel with us as comfortable as possible. Should you require special assistance such as the use of a wheelchair, or should you have a medical condition requiring the supply of oxygen on board, we need to record this information in your travel booking. In certain situations an Air Canada doctor will need to contact your personal physician in order to ensure that all necessary precautions for your safety and enjoyment are taken. This information will be forwarded to the airport staff as well as to the flight crew.

In certain airports we outsource the ground handling to another airline. When that is the case, we need to transfer the information to the handling airline. If your travel includes a transfer from Air Canada to another airline the requirement for special assistance may also be transferred so that the receiving airline can accommodate you as best as possible.

Safety is always a top priority at Air Canada. To assure the safety of our passengers and crew we need to know of any special requirements for assistance. This allows us to plan and reserve the seating arrangements as well as to maximize safety.

Unaccompanied Minors

Children between the ages of eight and eleven may travel alone on Air Canada. However, the Unaccompanied Minor (UM) service is mandatory. The UM service includes provisions for your child to be escorted by Air Canada agents and/or flight attendants from the moment they arrive at airport check-in until they reach their final destination.

You must request the service at time of booking by calling Air Canada Reservations. Because of the additional security precautions necessary to protect your child, bookings for unaccompanied minors (8-11 years old) cannot be made online at aircanada.com.

Upon arrival at the airport, you will need to complete a "Request for Carriage" form. The information on this form identifies your child and their flight itinerary, and includes the contact information of the person(s) meeting your child at final destination. You will also need to provide the contact information and authorizing signature of the parent/guardian authorizing the request for travel. This information is required in order to ensure the safety of your child.

Frequent Flyer Numbers

As a customer of Air Canada, you have the opportunity of accumulating points in one of a variety of frequent flyer programs. In order to automatically credit your account with these points, the information needs to be forwarded to the administrator of the applicable frequent flyer program. This information includes time, date of flown segments, class of service and other personal information that may include: name, address and phone number, in order to identify you. To fulfill these requirements, Air Canada needs to register the frequent flyer program name and your frequent flyer number on your booking.

Aeroplan

Air Canada was one of the first airlines to use a customer loyalty program. Aeroplan operates Air Canada’s loyalty program, including Air Canada Altitude. This program allows us to develop and recommend products and services based on an understanding of your interests and needs. Aeroplan enables our customers to accumulate miles for segments flown on Air Canada or for services or products purchased from participating Aeroplan partners. These miles are exchangeable for travel on Air Canada or on any of Aeroplan's partner airlines. To support this, Air Canada and Aeroplan are required to exchange information in order to ensure that your Aeroplan account is maintained, that miles are credited and debited correctly, and that promotional offers are tailored based on an understanding of your interests and needs. The information exchanged is limited to that which is required to fulfill the purpose. In addition, being an Aeroplan member makes it easier for you to book a flight. When you call Air Canada reservations and give your Aeroplan number, we can automatically transfer the information required to hold a flight booking from your Aeroplan account. Information such as your seating preference and choice of meal can be kept on your Aeroplan profile. To access your personal Aeroplan information on the Internet, we ask for your Aeroplan password. This is a security precaution to ensure that your information is safeguarded. You can request your password through the homepage of aircanada.com by clicking on 'Join now/Sign in' then 'Forgot/Need a password?'.

Tracking Technologies

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data.

We do not link this automatically collected data to other information we collect about you.

Some information is also collected automatically every time you visit aircanada.com (e.g., cookies and conversion beacons). We and our marketing partners, affiliates, or analytics or service providers, use technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts, to analyze trends, administer the website, tracking users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual and aggregated basis.

A cookie is a small non-executable file that is stored on your hard drive for the purpose of identifying your computer. While it is possible to make a booking at aircanada.com by having your browser's Internet security set such that it will not accept cookies your online experience may be greatly reduced.

Air Canada uses both session cookies and permanent cookies at aircanada.com. Session cookies are active only during the period you are logged on to aircanada.com website and are removed when you leave. They help us track the sections of the website that you use to allow us to make improvements in keeping with observed user preferences.

Permanent cookies remain on your hard drive until you remove them through your browser's Internet security settings. Permanent cookies are used to store user preferences such as preferred language and thus eliminate your having to make the same entries on each visit.

Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our website, but your ability to use some features or areas of our website may be limited.

Our cookies are not tied to personally identifiable information.

This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by www.aircanada.com only and does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties. Some of our business partners (e.g., tracking utilities) use cookies on our site.

We partner with a third party to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this website and other sites to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by accessing this opt-out page Opens in New Window. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.

To opt out of receiving advertising on Facebook based on your browsing activities and interests, click the box on the top right corner of a Facebook ad and select “Why am I seeing this?”. From there, you can click on the link “Manage your Ad Preferences” and follow the instructions to opt out of receiving such personalized advertising on Facebook.

Local Storage

We use local storage, also known as HTML5, to store your preferences such as volume control, or display content based upon what you view on our site to personalize your visit. Third Parties, with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity, use HTML5 to collect and store information.

Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5.

Conversion Beacons

Air Canada also uses Conversion Beacons (small, simple snippet of HTML code) inserted in the source of the designated website pages. Conversion Beacon technology works by leveraging industry standard browser based cookie technology and simple standard html coding. Email recipients who receive a Conversion Beacon enabled email message will receive a small unique cookie that is stored in their browser session. This unique cookie is later used to connect the email recipient with the subsequent recipient activity on the client website.

The purpose of tracking the activity is to better understand the email flow of our subscribers and to measure the effectiveness of ads. For this reason our Conversion Beacons are tied to personally identifiable information (email address).

Consent

When you book your travel or join aircanada.com, you provide Air Canada with your implied consent to use your information to fulfill your request.

Air Canada email offers

When you book your travel at aircanada.com you are added to our email list that will be used to contact you occasionally with offers that we feel will be of interest to you. If you do not want Air Canada to contact you with offers you may withdraw your consent at any time simply by changing your profile information and opting out of any or all of the email offers you no longer wish to subscribe to by clicking on 'Email offers Opens in New Window' on the homepage. If you later change your mind it is just as simple to opt back in to the email offers of your choice. In addition, all emails sent to you by Air Canada contain simple instructions telling you how to "unsubscribe."

Some information is collected automatically every time you visit aircanada.com (e.g., cookies and conversion beacons).

If you opt in to one or more of Air Canada's email offers you are consenting to allow Air Canada to contact you regarding those offers.

You may withdraw your consent at any time simply by changing your profile information or by following the instructions on how to "unsubscribe" contained in all emails sent by Air Canada.

Third Party Bookings, Changes to Bookings and Air Canada Corporate Rewards
When you purchase a product or book your travel at aircanada.com, you provide Air Canada with your implied consent to be added to our email list that will be used to contact you occasionally with commercial electronic messages such as offers and promotions (“promotional emails”) that we feel will be of interest to you.

When you opt in to one or more of Air Canada's promotional emails, you provide Air Canada with your express consent to allow Air Canada to be added to our email list that will be used to contact you occasionally with promotional emails.

You may withdraw your consent at any time simply by changing your profile information and opting out of any or all of the promotional emails you no longer wish to receive by clicking on 'Email offers Opens in New Window' on the homepage. If you later change your mind, it is just as simple to opt back in to receive promotional emails of your choice. In addition, all emails sent to you by Air Canada contain simple instructions telling you how to "unsubscribe." If you are a member of Aeroplan, you may unsubscribe from Air Canada promotional messages on your Aeroplan profile.

Note that service emails are not promotional emails and provide important information that must be communicated to you. Service emails must be transmitted to you in order to carry out Air Canada’s business activity. Service emails include, but are not limited to, emails containing information on purchases made on www.aircanada.com, emails containing flight related information, flight pass administration emails, and Altitude emails relaying status and benefits information.

Third Party Bookings, Changes to Bookings and Air Canada Corporate Rewards

If a third party, including a family member, friend, or work colleague seeks to make a booking on your behalf, that party will be asked to provide us with the same personal information that we would normally collect from you directly in order to complete your transaction. Unless and until we are advised otherwise, we consider that such third party has your consent and authorization to provide us with your personal information, to receive Air Canada promotional and service emails, and to make bookings (and changes thereto) on your behalf in accordance with this privacy policy. Please note that the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by a third party is subject to your dealings with them and any applicable privacy policies and practices they may have.

If a third party who has booked your current flight or other travel service or who otherwise has your full name and booking reference contacts us and seeks information on your booking or wishes to make changes to it, we will disclose your booking information and allow such third party to make changes as we will conclude that you have given them your consent to do so. If you do not want an individual to be able to obtain information on or make changes to your booking, you should not share your booking reference with them.

Please also note that if you make your booking through the Air Canada Corporate Rewards loyalty program that your employer, travel arranger, and other parties may be able to access certain information with respect to your bookings and make changes thereto. For more information on the Air Canada Corporate Rewards loyalty program, please consult the Air Canada Corporate Rewards Questions and Answers.

Limiting Collection

Air Canada will limit the collection of personal information to that which is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected.

We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy policy. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Air Canada uses contractual and other means to ensure that your personal information is afforded protection that meets the requirements of PIPEDA whenever one of our third party service providers is used to perform services on our behalf, including, without limitation, services relating to information technology, marketing, data processing and storage, research, conducting surveys and customer relations. Our third party service providers may contact you directly on our behalf to conduct research or surveys. Research and survey data is reported back to Air Canada as aggregated data with no reference to individual customers. These third parties may not use any personally identifiable information for their own marketing purposes. In some cases, Air Canada's third party service providers are located outside Canada. As such, your personal information may be processed or stored in other countries, including the United States. In certain circumstances, Air Canada's third party service providers may be required to disclose information to government authorities, regulators, courts, or law enforcement in those countries.

Customers who do not wish to be contacted for research, marketing or survey purposes should advise the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above.

Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention

Air Canada will not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected without your explicit consent or as required by law. You should understand that all airlines, including Air Canada, are required by new security laws in the U.S. and several other countries to give border control agencies access to passenger data. Accordingly, any information we hold about you and your travel arrangements may be disclosed to customs and immigration authorities of any country in your itinerary.

As indicated above, there may be instances (e.g. when you transfer from Air Canada to another airline) where we may share your information with third-party airlines. If you do not want us to share your personal information with these third parties, contact the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above.

In certain situations, Air Canada may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

We may also disclose your personal information:

as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process

when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request,

if Air Canada is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information,

to any other third party with your prior consent to do so.

Customer information is retained for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Accuracy

When you join aircanada.com you can ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate and up to date. You supply the information and if it should change, for example if your telephone number changes simply click on 'View/Update My Profile" and make the necessary changes.

Links to Third Party Sites

Our site includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of Air Canada. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.

Social Media Widgets

Our website includes social media features, such as the Facebook Like button. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Testimonials

We display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our site in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at privacy_vieprivee@aircanada.ca.

Frames

Some of our pages utilize framing techniques to serve content to you from our partners while preserving the look and feel of our site. Please be aware that you are providing your personal information to these third parties and not to aircanada.com.

Security

Your personal information is treated as strictly confidential by Air Canada, and Air Canada has taken the appropriate technical and organizational security measures against loss or unlawful processing of this information. To this end, Air Canada uses several security techniques including secure servers, firewalls and encryption, as well as physical safeguard of the locations where data is stored.
If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at privacy_vieprivee@aircanada.ca.

Safeguards

Personal information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet. Depending on your web browser you may see a secure webpage indicator, for example a closed lock in the lower right hand corner of the Internet Explorer browser.

The use of Secure Socket Layer protocol (SSL) allows all personal information such as your payment card number, to be encrypted as it travels from your computer to Air Canada's booking system. Once received, the information is unencrypted and processed in the same way as a payment card transaction placed via the telephone.

Openness

Air Canada's privacy practices are as outlined within this policy. Should you have any questions or comments you may contact the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above.

Individual Access

Upon request, Air Canada will provide you with information about whether we hold or process any of your personal information on behalf of a third party. To request this information, please contact the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above.

With certain limited exceptions as provided in the PIPEDA you have a right to access your personal information held by Air Canada. You may access your personal information held in your aircanada.com profile by clicking on 'View/Update My Profile' on the homepage or by contacting the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

If you want access to your personal information on your travel booking through an Air Canada Call Centre you should have your booking reference number or your e-ticket number available to help us ensure that you are entitled to access the information.

If you have other queries you may contact the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above.

Challenging Compliance

If you have any concerns regarding Air Canada's compliance with the 10 principles of the PIPEDA you may address those concerns to the Air Canada Privacy Office at the address provided above. Complaints concerning Air Canada's compliance with PIPEDA are taken seriously and all complaints are investigated.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

This policy takes effect on December 4, 2004 and was last updated on May 24, 2017. Air Canada reserves the right to unilaterally modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy we will notify you prior to making the changes on our homepage and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.